18 September 2009

For the last race of the omnium the top riders get callups, and so does the lantern rouge - proof -

There will be a race within the race, the three omnium riders are just going to watch each other, and today's larger field will make today's race more interesting - a lot of these riders should be fresh from not having race the prior two days and there are a couple of interesting hairpin turns and a nice hill to boot.

I am lucky enough to have three teammates today. Very early in the race disaster strikes the lead omnium rider as he gets entangled in the fencing in one of the hairpins and has to quit. I take a look around the reduced field and realized the second place rider is nowhere to be seen so I tell my teammates to relax and we can go for the win instead of just placing me higher than the other two omnium riders.

Peter spends about 80% of the race off the front in a long breakaway. Sam is initially close to him but can't close the gap and comes back to the pack. One lap after Peter is off, the second place rider in the omnium Rich shows up! It turns out we dropped him early and he clawed his way back - at this point I was just drafting Josh and hanging onto the back of the pack - if I could have *and* known I would have worked to make the pack go faster! Try to communicate the new situation to Sam but after the race it turns out he didn't hear me but am still able to use Sam to move up towards the end of the race, and Anthony gives me helpful advice to save some energy.

Anyways, Rich and I spend the rest of the race watching each other, move up and back in tandem. Peter gets brought back with one to go. I position myself near the front on the hill near the second bridge and Peter has one last burst to take us to the front but this leaves the steep part of the hill and I tire a bit and get swarmed. Fortunately for me, Rich only makes it a couple of riders ahead of me by the bottom of the hill/hairpin and I am able to sprint past him and put several other riders between us on the finish straight to get seventh and win the overall for the omnium.

12 September 2009

It turns out that only three of us from the time trial are racing the criterium today. The other two riders got first and second in the time trial so I am about ten points behind. Half of the primes are for omnium points and the other half are for cash and prizes, and of course only the three of us planning on doing all three events are interested in the omnium points. I have a huge advantage literally and figuratively in that Peter shows up to do this crit and a later crit, we take turns leading each other out for primes, and Peter takes one solo and we end up winning all of them. The field is pretty small at twenty three so it's pretty easy to change position, I thought I had enough in me to lead out the last lap and a quarter (just to keep things reasonably safe) but only lasted a quarter lap, faded, then followed Anthony to move up a bit and thought I had beat the other two contenders for the omnium when I got pipped at the line by the first place finisher from yesterday for ninth and ended up tenth with the second place tt rider, Rich, finishing in eleventh. Oh well, I still made up ground on both riders to make things close

Wasn't trying to peak for this but feel sick on both Wednesday and Thursday and don't ride much, a little less fitness on race day but should be fresh but feeling like I have a cold or allergy attack. If I had not paid for the omnium and the hotel would definitely be staying home, but here goes...

Only my second time trial of the year, first was Madera where I was feeling kind of sick and was, and today, where I feel a little under the weather again.

The course is on a widish bike path, with three small overpasses and the overpass turnaround as the main difficulties.

I shouldn't expect much, was aiming to at least get close to my 20 minute power for the whole event, taking into account racing adrenaline. Manage to do this for the outbound leg and totally blow up on the inbound leg. On the way back I can barely open my mouth because of the heat and lack of moisture, at one point it gets so dried out it's stuck close.

CTL: 120TSB: 1Strictly by the numbers I should be in great shape for this race but I feel pretty sick. But I preregistered so off to the city I go.

Or I should say I thought I preregistered. When I get home, the race registrations for today's crits are still in my shopping cart from three months ago...

Show up and get the last open spot in the 35+ 4/5 race and waitlist myself for the E4 race. The race is pretty easy so I wait for the last couple of laps to move up. While I am passing one rider, he accelerates, and when he moves to the inside on a turn I make the mistake of drafting too closely and not anticipating his next move which is to swerve out of the apex, from watching the video he boxed himself in a small area next to the curb and when he swerved out I got pushed to the outside and slowed and this was enough change for the rider behind me to run right into me. I still think I could have done well except at this point I was dragging a riderless bike behind me in my rear wheel. Pretty frustrating, sick and still in it till one and a half laps to go. Oh well.

T: 40:46S: 40.3C: 100Pavg: 180Pnorm: 216

Wait patiently at registration area for the waiting list to get called up and I don't have high hopes as I am 17th. But I get the last number! This gives me about two minutes to warmup, or in reality, about quarter of the race. There is a big crash halfway through, I bridge solo from behind the crash. This turns out to be a waste since they are unsure about when they can get the injured riders off the course, our race is stopped and restarted. Two riders off the front before the crash get a little bit bigger lead, but no matter, probably wouldn't have changed things much. With two laps to go help move Jay up a bit from the back but maybe a little too early? Anyways we are top ten going into the next to last corner when there is another accident in the middle of the corner, I touch the brakes and start sliding right towards the riders, should have just aimed for the hole shot, and have to slow considerably to avoid becoming a crash victim. At least I got close to finishing.

I should feel pretty good according to the numbers but I think I am getting a cold or allergies are acting up because when we start racing, can't do anything except sit in and wait for the finales, and totally blow during the last race.3/4 Scratch Race

02 September 2009

Feel decent after a long day in the sun yesterday at Winters, but takes a long time to get comfortable. Two riders get off early. I lost track of them so I asked around and people said they got caught so I didn't worry. Huge mistake. Late in the race I could hear the announcer talking about their lead. Racing for third at this point, and the teammates of one of the riders are sitting on the front dutifully doing tempo so I start trying to up the pace, too little too late. At least keep it safer than it was, saved too much at the end on the hill, should have surged again once I caught the leaders of the pack, instead got swarmed on the descent, ended up tenth in field sprint.

My role is to attack and see if anything sticks, carry bottles for others, and regroup after the hill. When we signed up there were only twenty in the field and half were teammates but at the start the field is full with the addition of some representation from Safeway/Morgan Stanley and many others so someone who does well today will earn their t-shirt.

Peter goes off first, and gets such a big gap, no one even bothers to nibble. So when Josh goes and comes back, I surge multiple times and take a few riders with me, but nothing sticks. Then we hit the rollers and I just hang on for the ride. Pick up a fourth, neutral bottle in the feedzone from Lei but then hand it back to him because my pockets are full. The only difficulty on the course is the one constant grade on the final hill and when a few teammates are off the pace I wait for them and we start time trialing on the flat section. Unfortunately one is having wheel hit his brake pad so he has to give up after about 30 minutes, right when our field comes into view. For the next section I trade pulls with Lei and another rider until we get within 200 meters and I can't keep up. Lei gets almost to the group at the feedzone when he flats, and the rider he was with flats as well. Then I catch Jay who is working on his second flat. There is a very bad pattern starting here...

Luckily Mark's SO Amy volunteers to hand up water in the feed zone, on the second (and third laps for the really hard men), it's really nice to have something cold.

At this point there is no chance for me to catch up and help anybody so I give my fourth still full bottle to Jon after the hill so someone finishing the third lap will have some liquids, and roll to the finish where I catch Mark who gave up his wheel to Roger who flatted. Roger finishes the day in style by winning the field sprint for second.

Come into this race with a lot of pressure, lots of folks know I won this last year so I am not counting on the same tactics working. Many teammates this year, too. Not as big a team presence as in the past so I think this works against us, folks race pretty negatively overall, and we finish about five minutes slower than last year when I attacked like mad in the first half and got dropped in the second half.

As the race progresses, start to lose more and more teammates to flats and mechanicals, but we still manage a good leadout to control the pace for the last few miles. We get to the bridge that is a minor choke point and we get swarmed a little but I think I should have been more patient, and not gone with the early moves - maybe too many people watched my video of last year and were going to try to imitate it. One of the riders I am watching is Michael, who has had a great 2009 season, and when he jumps I respond immediately. Erik S. and Mike S. are there, too.

Surprisingly to me and Michael, he fades after about twenty seconds and when we catch him, Mike S. and Erik S. go again. We have not yet even gotten to the underpass, and this is really not where I want to go, but I don't want to give up without a fight. In retrospect I should have let someone else chase them down. But I surge again. Mike S. fades. I crawl back onto Erik's wheel, then before we reach the corner, he surges, and I have trouble getting on his wheel. In the back of my head I am thinking, wow, Erik is going to win. But as soon as we reach the corner, riders start passing me until finally it's me and Erik staggering across the line for tenth and eleventh place. This is disappointing for me because I feel like I let my teammates down.